Payments Therapist adds former FIS executive to lead PCI compliance expansion

Payments Therapist has expanded its PCI compliance practice and hired former FIS Vice President Wes Shattler as Senior Partner, PCI Services. The move is aimed at helping fintechs, PayFacs, ISVs and ISOs manage growing payment security obligations with year-round governance and first-time assessment support.

Why it matters: - Growing payments companies are under pressure to manage PCI obligations across security, engineering, compliance and leadership. - Payments Therapist is targeting that gap with dedicated leadership and two new services designed to reduce last-minute assessment scramble and unclear accountability. - The expansion is aimed at fintech companies, payment facilitators, independent software vendors and registered independent sales organizations.

What happened: - Payments Therapist announced the expansion of its PCI compliance practice on October 13, 2026. - The firm appointed former FIS Vice President Wes Shattler as Senior Partner, PCI Services. - The company also launched PCI Governance as a Service and Handling Your First PCI Assessment.

The details: - Shattler brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity, risk management and compliance leadership. - He has supported more than 500 PCI assessments and compliance initiatives. - Shattler served three consecutive terms on the PCI Security Standards Council Board of Advisors. - PCI Governance as a Service is an ongoing engagement model that provides year-round program leadership and coordination. - The service covers policies, evidence, documentation, control ownership and remediation activities between formal assessments. - The program includes coordination with internal stakeholders, tracking outstanding requirements, maintaining compliance documentation, managing remediation activity and preparing for interactions with Qualified Security Assessors. - Handling Your First PCI Assessment is designed for organizations preparing for their first formal PCI validation. - Payments Therapist says the first-assessment program includes scope review, readiness evaluations, gap identification, documentation preparation, evidence organization, stakeholder coordination and assessor communications. - Payments Therapist works across payment strategy, infrastructure, technology, security, compliance, risk, operations and revenue.

Between the lines: - The expansion reflects a broader shift in payments compliance from periodic checkbox work to continuous program management. - The firm is positioning senior PCI expertise as a service that smaller or fast-growing companies may not want to build in-house. - Shattler said PCI compliance often touches nearly every part of a payments organization and is frequently spread across teams with competing priorities. - Jason Kafer said the market needs specialized expertise that connects people, processes and responsibilities across the PCI program.

What's next: - Payments Therapist will use the expanded practice to support ongoing PCI governance and first-time assessment preparation for clients. - The company is directing prospects to paymentstherapist.com for more information.

The bottom line: - Payments Therapist is betting that PCI compliance has become a year-round operating function, not just an annual assessment exercise.